Robert Redford is in talks to play Oral Roberts in a movie about Carlton Pearson, a Pentecostal minister who was a rising star within his denomination until he revealed that he no longer believed in Hell.

The Hollywood Reporter says the film, which was originally being developed for director Marc Forster (Quantum of Solace, Machine Gun Preacher) under the name Heretics, is now being developed by Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs, Rachel Getting Married) under the name Come Sunday.

Jeffrey Wright, who has had key roles in the James Bond and Hunger Games franchises, is in talks to play Pearson himself. The script is by Marcus Hinchey (All Good Things), and it is based on an episode of This American Life that first aired in 2005.

Five years ago, I wrote a short blog post noting that HBO was developing a biopic on Sam Kinison, the Pentecostal preacher turned politically-incorrect stand-up comic.

Now, today, comes news that this project, which already had a few producers attached to it, finally has a director and an actor — and it turns out nearly everyone involved has mixed religion with comedy in one form or another in the past.

First, one of the producers is Tom Shadyac, director of Bruce Almighty (2003) and its sequel Evan Almighty (2007); more recently, he has documented his own personal spiritual quest in a film called I Am (2010).